Nineteen Thirty-Seven & A Wall of Fire Rising

The second story "Nineteen Thirty-Seven" tells a story about a daughter (Josephine) and mother's journey from the Dominican Republic across Massacre Rive to the city. Josephine's grandmother was died because of this river, she and her mom are saved from the tomb of this river when Josephine was still in her mom's womb. When Josephine and her mother got to the city, they lived in a friend's house, the friend had a sick child, the child died after they came, so everyone blamed on her mother and accused the mother as a witch who killed the child. So the mother got caught. When Josephine went to visit her mother (She saw the Madonna cried which is a statue of Mary from Christianity), her mom is sick and dying because of all the bullying that guards did to her. And they even shaved her hair. And Josephine's mom is trying to explain what she is doing, but always cryptically, that is the reason why Josephine does not understand her mother. She suffers in prison for things she did not do, and the only comfort zone she had is whenever Josephine come to visit, but she is really angry and resented to Josephine's silence towards everything. Jacqueline comes at the end but also an important character. She is also part of the "river" group, that is the main reason why Josephine is kind of close to her. And she is the one who tells Josephine everything and tells her to embrace Manman and her traditions. "'At least I gave birth to my daughter on the night that my mother was taken from me,' she would say, 'At least you came out at the right moment to take my mother's place.'" (Danticat 36) It shows the main theme of the three stories so far which is the relationship between daughter and mother; there are strong feelings between generations and generations in this quote. Why did the mother say Josephine "came out at the right moment" is because, her mother died not long times ago, she lost her only hope. However, Josephine came out soon after, which gave her another hope and let her know that she is not alone. Also, for her, Josephine is like the replacement of her mother. It is all about the mother-daughter relationship bonds together.
The third story "A Wall of Fire Rising," it is a story happened in a family of three people. Guy the father of the family, Lili the mother of the family and Little Guy the son of the family. They live in a shantytown in Haiti's countryside. Lili stays at home every day doing housework, Little Guy goes to school, and Guy works at different odd jobs. Little Guy got a lead role in the play, and Lili asked him to recite the lines to Guy. And Little Guy did a good job, and his parents support and encourage him. And then they went to an amusement park and a sugar selling the place. Guy and Lili saw a hot air balloon, and Guy told Lili that he can fly a balloon. Guy was affected by his son's line speech on freedom and liberation, so he went out to the field and working with the hot air balloon. He tells Lili about their son's future and everything, it is like he's leaving a death note which is kind of foreshadowing of Guy's death. The next day, Guy went on the hot air balloon, and he didn't escape from the reality, he didn't get the freedom and liberty he wanted. So, he decided to jump off the hot air balloon which in my opinion is the dumbest thing to do. He just is irresponsible of his family. He just leaves them behind. And aside of Guy's body, his son recite another line of his play. And Lili said no to the workers who asked whether should they close Guy's eyes or not. "'No, leave them open,' Lili said. 'My husband, he likes to look at the sky.'" (Danticat 67) This is the last sentence of the whole short story. Lili said this because she knows her husband wants the freedom, and "sky" here is a symbol of freedom. Because the sky is wide and there is no limitation in the sky, which she thinks is want her husband wanted. And she noticed in the story that her husband's future does not include Little Guy and herself when they are talking at night. She was scared at that time, but it kind of foreshadowing his death, and she sort of has preparation for it. So, she knows that he wanted freedom and liberation, that lead us to this quote where she said her husband likes to look at the sky.